E-commerce shopping provides convenience and expediency. Using e-commerce websites, customers can conveniently browse through vast collections of goods, easily place purchase orders and efficiently complete purchasing transactions.
However, in a corporate environment, purchasing goods by a company is often regulated and can require obtaining an approval from authorized personnel before a purchase order can actually be placed with an e-commerce website. For example, purchasing a requested item from an e-commerce website can require a pre-authorization before the requested item can be actually ordered from the e-commerce website.
A pre-authorization requirement is often necessitated by various policies implemented in a company procurement system. For example, many companies require that only designated individuals can actually place purchase orders on behalf of the company, or that only certain goods can be purchased using the company funds.
Obtaining a pre-authorization before ordering a requested item from an e-commerce website can often be a time-consuming and inefficient process. For example, it can require entering information about the requested item to a pre-authorization request, submitting the request for review, and waiting until a pre-authorization decision is made. Once a pre-authorization confirmation is received, the same information about the requested item needs to be entered to an e-commerce website to complete and place a purchase order.
Hence, corporate e-commerce shopping often requires entering the same type of information about a requested item twice: the first time while a pre-authorization request is generated, and again while an actual purchase order is placed with an e-commerce website. Retyping the same type of information about the requested item, e-commerce vendor or other information can be time consuming and inconvenient.